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Patriot Games (Special Edition)

Patriot Games (Special Edition)

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Patriot Games
Review: The second Jack Ryan film is a less frenetic instalment and is better for it, with a more compelling storyline and some terrific action. Taken from Tom Clancy's superb novel, PATRIOT GAMES is one of the best action films ever made. Much to Alec Baldwin's dismay, action man Harrison Ford took over the role of the CIA agent Jack Ryan, and he does an even better job of the character than Baldwin did. Philip Noyce (DEAD CALM) does a terrific job with the action, and the sharp script elevates this above standard action fare. A must-see film for Clancy and Harrison Ford fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This time it's for family
Review: Jack Ryan first came to the screen in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. In that film, Ryan was a CIA analyst who was reluctantly placed in the middle of an intriguing political chess match. The stakes were high as all-out war was pending. Now, Jack's back in PATRIOT GAMES. It's a different film that Red October. Different Pace. Different stakes. Different Ryan.

We pick up years after Red October. Ryan has left the front lines of the CIA and has become an instructor. While his family is operating in London, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ryan prevents a terrorist attack that is attributed to the IRA. Not one to be easily defeated, the terrorist turns his sites on Ryan and his family. This time it's personal.

Philip Noyce picked up directing duties with this film. He continued the interest in the cool, cutting edge techno-gadgets. A tactical mission attack seen only through a satellite night vision shows a new kind of warfare, and a new way to watch it. But, Noyce's story doesn't have the claustrophobic feel of RED OCTOBER and the overall stakes in the film are so much smaller that it feels like a more standard action film. PATRIOT GAMES puts a lot more on the back of Ryan, as October had Sean Connery's Ramius to carry much of the film.

Harrison Ford took over the role of Ryan from Alec Baldwin and made many changes that worked within the new film. He is now a more seasoned agent and at times an action hero, something Baldwin's character worked so hard to avoid. Ford makes the role his own and is immediately comfortable in the role. His wife is played by Anne Archer and his daughter by a young Thora Birch (AMERICAN BEAUTY, GHOST WORLD.) but, their roles are limited to victim. The wonderful James Earl Jones reprises his role as the Intelligence leader Admiral Greer. All four of them would return in the next Ryan film, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. But they are haunted by Sean Bean as the angry young man with an extreme issue with revenge. There is even a strange alliance with the leader of the IRA entertainingly presented by Richard Harris.

PATRIOT GAMES is a professional entry in the extremely sturdy Jack Ryan series, recently joined by Ben Affleck's entry in THE SUM OF ALL FEARS. The audio transfer is excellent on the DVD; however, the video transfer has trouble in the darker scenes.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: They botched a great book
Review: "Patriot Games" is my favorite of Tom Clancy's novel, a taut thriller in which the hero is caught in a moral dilemma. He wants to protect his family, but worries that at some point he might become just as bad as the terrorists he is fighting. There is action, and there is a soul.
How upsetting, then, to find the movie has thrown all that away and turned it into a shoot 'em 'up. Somehow they managed to keep all the events more or less intact and still sacrificed everything that made the book so satisfying. Even Jack Ryan's wife joins in, urging him, "Get 'em, Jack." What a travesty!
In place of the nuanced moral quandary of the novel, we've been given something with no more soul than one of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns. It apparently doesn't matter what kind of people we are, only who's fastest with a gun.
Harrison Ford is OK as Jack Ryan, although even here he's getting a little long in the tooth for the part, and this is supposedly the first of the stories, the events that took place before "Red October." Frankly, I liked Alec Baldwin better as Ryan, although I'm apparently the only person in the universe who did.
It is absurd, I know, to complain that a movie "wasn't like the book." They are completely different experiences, and sometimes you're bound to be disappointed. But "Patriot Games" goes beyond disappointment. By the time the credits rolled I was actually angry.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ok movie, many mistakes
Review: Alright, I thought on the whole this was an ok movie in terms of plot and action. However, I definately do NOT like the portrayal of the IRA. This is where the movie falls apart. Sure the IRA are terrorists. Sure, they kill innocent people. But the British are not innocent angels here. The British have oppressed the Irish for centuries, letting millions die from the potato famine, and generally treating them like dirt. And the conflict that is still going on in North Ireland is not innocent British against evil IRA. There is innocent blood being shed on both sides, and this movie has utterly failed to portray it that way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sean Bean and Patriot Games
Review: Patriot Games is based on the same novel by Thomas Clancy. It is the story of the families of Jack Ryan as well as Sean Miller. Sean Miller is played by Sean Bean, who plays him as a cold, destructive, calculated murderer, who sets out in a plot to kidnap a member of the royal family. The plot goes awry, and Sean's younger brother gets killed in the ambush. Its Harrison Ford who must fight Sean Miller's terrorist tactics with all that he as, its Sean Bean at his best more at home with a machine gun, than he is with words. Its a movie that should not be missed, and its Sean Bean at his best along with Hugh Fraser who played the Duke of Wellington with Sean Bean in the "Richard Sharpe" series. Its Sean as you will see him in later movies, its Sean as the aggressive, brilliant and lethal killer.! Don't forget to read the book after you have enjoyed the movie, and yes the only miscast in the film is the actress who plays the wife of Jack Ryan.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Harrison Ford strikes back
Review: Not the best Jack Ryan but passable.
watch for Samuel L Jackson being underused as set decoration.
Sean Bean is practically wasted, being hired only to scowl and fill some tight t-shirts.
It's the technology being showed off.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: ok!
Review: This is an ok film,average plot,average script,and average acting!This isn't an edge of the seat thriller,but is entertaining.Although the film doesnt quite capture the actual thuggery of the IRA.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Action Movie Ever!!!
Review: I saw this movie after seeing Clear and Present Danger and I thought it was awesome. In the movie, Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan who has now quit the CIA, is giving lectures and is also on vacation in London with his wife and daughter. One day he sees a group of masked men from the IRA blow up a car and shoot several civilians and guards around Buckingham palace. Without thinking he knocks over one man and shoots another. The man who he shot turns out to be the younger brother of the man he knocked over, Sean Miller (Sean Bean). In court, Jack is knighted and Sean is sentenced to prison. But when Sean's fellow terrorists free him from jail, they get on a ship going to America, as Sean is intent on getting revenge on Ryan or his family, for killing his brother. As a result, Ryan's wife and daughter end up in a hospital and when they come home, Sean is gone and everything seems safe. The end is so scary. It's Thanksgiving night and the enitre Ryan family including some of Jack's close friends from the CIA are over. There are agents guarding the house and there is a thunder and lightening storm outside. Then the power goes off, the guards are found dead, and 6 IRA terrorists including Sean Miller sneak into the house and begin to hunt the family thoughout the halls and rooms. It would be so scary to be in your bedroom and see a man wearing a bodysuit and nightvision googles, and carrying a machine gun creep into the room. This movie is suspenseful, full of action and fun to watch! I think it is rated R for some violence, language and a sex scene.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jack is d bess
Review: We dun need no stinkin badges. We got Jack Ryan,so dun worry my fren. The DVD is muy bueno, I gaurantee regardless. So, do your self a favor my fren, and buy it regardless.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, But bad to the buck
Review: If you read the book you would know the movie is bad compared to it.


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